Many More Migrants Still Needed in Australia

A study conducted by the Migration Council of Australia (MCA) claims that an increase in migration intake is critical to Australia’s future prosperity.

MCA is an independent, non-partisan, not-for-profit body established to enhance the productive benefits of Australia’s migration and humanitarian programs.

According to MCA, the migration levels of Australia need to increase by about 30% per year in order to retain the economy’s competitiveness and sustain future growth -by accepting 250,000 migrants annually until 2029-30.

“What we get in terms of gains is quite amazing for Australia and something that we should be encouraging,” MCA’s CEO Carla Wilshire said.

“Migration will be adding $1.6 trillion to Australia’s GDP. So in a single year, about 40% of GDP will be owing, in some form, to the migration program that we run,” she added.

MCA warned that not increasing the migration program or stopping the migration program all together would have very significant consequences.

The CEO stated that a healthy migration program is critical to address the country’s fiscal deficit and the ageing population. She noted that migration will add 15% to employment growth in terms of labour market participation. This is going to have an impact on fiscal revenues for government, because migrants are generally younger, more skilled and have a higher employment participation rate. Thus they contribute more to the tax base and rely less government welfare services.

“In fact, there’s less of a ‘spend’ per migrant in terms of government services. And so when you combine those two factors (tax contribution vs reliance on welfare), their impact is to contribute more in some senses to the government’s fiscal bottom line,” says Ms. Wilshire.

In addition, failure to have a strong migration program, Australia’s economy will suffer and it will not hit the target population of 38 million by 2050 – the projected population target of the government’s Intergenerational Report (IGR) which shows that migrants are expected to make up a smaller percentage of the population in coming decades.

The IGR provides a snapshot of Australia in 2055, when the population is projected to almost double from 24 million today, to 40 million.

Summary

In a nutshell, this is good news for those who plan to move and permanently live in Australia. It is good to know that many years from now, Australia will still be open to accept migrants. However, keep in mind that the immigration policies change quite often and may make an application more difficult in the future. If you are seriously planning to relocate to Australia, the best time to apply is when you qualify for what you qualify.